The Doctor's Dilemma

Editor reviews

Read this 1906 Shaw play about medical ethics, and you might wonder if the master wit had nodded a bit. On the page this satire of doctors faced with the choice of curing the tuberculosis of either an unscrupulous but talented artist or a meek friend might seem old-fashioned. But hear this thrilling performance by L.A. Theatre Works, and you will wonder how your reading missed the many delights of the work. In the hands of director Rosalind Ayres and her cast, the satire elicits steady laughs from the live audience as the Harley Street medical cronies become a seamless comic ensemble, and, best of all, each of the play's many shifts from comedy to drama is brought off unerringly. Listeners will admire the skill of L.A. Theatre Works at capturing the energy and intelligence of this play.

Summary

The blowhards, the know-it-alls, the scrupulous and the impecunious are all targets for Shaw’s incisive wit in his classic satire of the medical profession. A well-respected physician is forced to choose whom he shall save: a bumbling friend or the ne’er-do-well husband of the woman he loves. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Jane Carr, Gregory Cooke, Kenneth Danziger, Roy Dotrice, Martin Jarvis, Jennifer Dundas Lowe, Simon Templeman, Douglas Weston and Paxton Whitehead. The Doctor’s Dilemma is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series featuring science-themed plays. Major funding for the Relativity Series is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to enhance public understanding of science and technology in the modern world.